La Belle Jardinière

"he knows that in the midst of the Agache-Willot jumble, there are good deals, such as Peaudouce, Conforama, or La Belle Jardinière,"

"Bernard Arnault did not wait to become the definitive owner of SFFAW to begin the big cleanup at Boussac. On the very day of his installation as CEO of Compagnie Boussac Saint-Frères on January 2nd, he signed the sale of two factories in Beauvais and Saint-Quentin. These two small units employed 134 people and produced blankets and bedspreads. The buyer was a company created for the occasion, L'Internationale Lainière, led by Gilbert Benattar, Alexandre Saban, and Jean-Yves Delanoë. They paid on credit and received subsidies from Boussac equivalent to 45,000 francs per employee, totaling 6 million. In addition, they received a subsidy of 2.5 million from the Picardy region. Benattar, Saban, and Delanoë were so linked to Boussac that they set up their headquarters at 2 Rue du Pont-Neuf, in one of the group's subsidiaries, La Belle Jardinière."

"Initially, Financière Agache transferred its 86.5% stake in Conforama to one of its unlisted subsidiaries, IPS, whose main asset until then was a 20% stake in La Belle Jardinière. Then, IPS was absorbed by Le Bon Marché, which thus became the parent company of Conforama and the majority shareholder (75%) of La Belle Jardinière. This created a group "combining both commercial dynamism and control of significant real estate assets," according to the statement by Financière Agache, a group that investors should not turn their noses up at. Arnault expects them to subscribe later to a 2.4 billion franc capital increase for Le Bon Marché, the proceeds of which will be reinvested in Christian Dior."

"The distribution subsidiaries held by SFFAW, Au Bon Marché, La Belle Jardinière, and Conforama, which are profitable and not under judicial settlement, continue on their own path. The crown jewel, Christian Dior, a subsidiary of BSF, is already the object of all covetousness. There is talk of taking it public along with Conforama."

"On July 25, a thunderclap, nonetheless predictable: the indictment of Jean-Pierre Willot made the front page of all the newspapers. An arrest warrant has been issued against him by Judge Martinet on the grounds of corporate asset misappropriation to the detriment of the companies Dior and La Belle Jardinière. After being heard by the judicial police in Lille, Jean-Pierre Willot was urgently presented to the examining magistrate to be notified of his charges."

"Although absent at the time of the presentation of the takeover offers for the group, Bernard Tapie does not admit defeat. At the SFFAW meeting held in Lille on May 24, 1985, he tries to turn the situation to his advantage. His advisor, Claude Colombani, representing a group of "ad hoc" small shareholders and with the hoped-for support of the president of La Belle Jardinière, who holds more than 18% of the capital of SFFAW, intends to oppose the resolutions proposed by Bernard Arnault. With a judicial sleight of hand, Hugues de Lasteyrie, the new general director of the group, manages to have him taken into custody for "attempted extortion of funds and signature," long enough to wrap up the meeting."